In 1974, when Brig. Gen. Efrain Rios Montt was robbed of his rightful election victory by former President Carlos Arana Osorio, he fled to California and joined forces with evangelical crusader and recovering alcoholic Jim Durkin, who headed the Eureka-based Gospel Outreach fundamentalist movement. To Durkin and his followers today, the ascendancy of Rios Montt provides a golden opportunity to propagate their teachings and convert Guatemala into the first Latin American country with a Protestant majority by the end of the '90s.

Rios Montt was reborn from the ashes of defeat and exile, and returned to seize power in the '82 palace coup orchestrated by junior military officers and his "gringo" evangelical cronies, co-founders of the Church of the Word (\o7 el Verbo\f7 ), a Guatemala-based offshoot of Gospel Outreach.

During his abbreviated tenure, Rios Montt preached the word of God on television while publicly executing accused communists and common criminals; in the Highlands, his army mounted a bloody counterinsurgency, named "Bullets and Beans," against insurgents of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union, who had recruited thousands of impoverished Mayan Indians.

By the time Rios Montt was overthrown by Gen. Humberto Mejia Victores in August, 1983, he had left an indelible mark on his countrymen: His scorched-earth policy had wiped out hundreds of Mayan villages, creating a million refugees and leaving 15,000 Guatemalans dead or disappeared.

Former Humboldt County Resident Efraín Ríos Montt, Guatemalan Military Dictator, to Answer to Genocide Charges Tomorrow

Almost thirty years after the end of his brutal military reign, 85-year-old Efraín Ríos Montt will appear in a Guatemala City court tomorrow to answer charges that he ordered the genocide of tens of thousands of his countrymen of Mayan descent during his year-and-a-half long tenure as dictator of that country. (Coverage: Los Angeles Times, New York Times, The Guardian.)

The court case begins less than a week after Ríos Montt lost the immunity from prosecution that he enjoyed as a state official. After being deposed in a coup in 1983, Ríos Montt embarked on a semi-legitimate political career that culminated in a failed presidential bid in 2003 and eventual election to the legislature in 2007.

Sometimes noted in the current round of coverage is the fact that Ríos Montt is an ordained minister with the Iglesia del Verbo (Church of the Word). This is a Latin American offshoot of the Eureka-based Gospel Outreach, a Christian denomination that has its roots in the old Lighthouse Ranch Jesus commune on Table Bluff.

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When he returned to Guatemala, Gospel Outreach went with him. Durkin remained his spiritual advisor before, during and after the 1982 coup in which he gained power. As recounted in this Peter Schrag column from 1983 — well after Montt had ramped up the murder of indigenous citizens — researchers from The Nation magazine showed that Gospel Outreach promoted Montt’s cause, raising money among its growing organization to promote their church member as a bastion against the spread of Communism in Latin America. Church leaders were promoted to high governmental positions.

A few years after Montt was thrown out for the first time, a documentary by Bay Area filmmakers Steve Talbot and Elizabeth Farnsworth, showed that the church acted as the good cop to Montt’s bad in the infamous “Beans and Bullets” program, in which hundreds of indigenous villages were razed. These days, Gospel Outreach has an open compound — a large church, plus several homes — just of Harris Avenue, about halfway between Safeway and Redwood Acres.

The church is Gospel Outreach, founded at an abandoned Coast Guard station in northern California in the early 1970's. Members had long hair, played guitars and conducted baptisms in the Pacific. Mild prosperity, haircuts and other trappings of respectability overtook them. The church now has a congregation of 500 in Eureka, Calif.

In 1976, a church member eager to proselytize went to Guatemala. Protestant success there in recent years, the documentary says, is a subject of ''intense speculation.'' Why has it been a success? The documentary offers two reasons: Protestant fundamentalism encourages an ''apocalyptic'' view commensurate with Guatemalan history; military regimes oppose liberal Catholics. Possibly, there is a third reason: The missionaries are awfully good at what they do.

The original church member was followed by others. An outpost of Gospel Outreach was established in Guatemala City, where it attracted upper-middle class converts, among them Gen. Efrain Rios Montt. After a military coup in March 1982, the Army called him out of retirement to head the new Government.

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Thus a rural pacification program - called ''Beans and Bullets'' - was an excuse to raze villages and then make the villagers wards of the Government. Gospel Outreach, with the Army's blessing, supplied food, medicine and clothing. An old film clip from the Christian Broadcasting Network shows that even three dentists were flown in.

At the same time, Gospel Outreach spoke to conservative Christians in the United States. In an appeal for funds, Gospel Outreach said that Nicaragua was ''a model for Marxist oppression,'' while El Salvador was the scene of a ''brutal war.'' Guatemala, however, represented ''an opportunity.'' The White House, apparently impressed, allowed Edwin Meese to meet with church leaders.

Gospel Outreach is an evangelical Pentecostal church with headquarters in Eureka, California and Guatemala. It grew out of the "Jesus People" movement of the 1960s in the United States. Jim Durkin and Joseph Anfuso are among its founders. (1) According to Sara Diamond, a researcher on the Religious Right, Gospel Outreach practices a moderate form of shepherding because its literature emphasizes "commitment," "covenant relationship," and "spiritual authority. "(2) It is an evangelical organization that believes the Bible is the Word of God and that the authority of government is ordained by God. (3)

Under Mr. Durkin's direction the basic precepts of GospelOutreach evolved: "unquestioned acceptance of the Bible as the literal word of God; a missionary responsibility to reach out and carry the word to others; a decentralized structure with autonomous congregations and little distinction between clergy and laity; strong emphasis on family ties, and a pentecostal liturgy which includes the practice of speaking in tongues. "(3)

For dowsing Dad always used willow sticks, willow being an indicator species of high ground water and thus having an affinity for such conditions in dowser's theory.

I have an undergrad degree in forest science and could have filed for soil science degree if had gone on 6 weeks soil summer field course rather than 10 week forestry field course.

Often argued with my Dad that his water "dowsing" was just from the self-evident knowledge in his life experience as I could do the exact same thing by looking at subtle changes in vegetation, soil, and landscape morphology and didn't need sticks but a shovel was helpful One might have a field in rolling hill suitable for farming, home, or other development requiring a well. The obvious, if present, best place to put a well is going to be in an area with the mottled look of the soil B horizon that results from anerobic soil micro-organisms and evidence of a high water table.

Had a huge head start over other students at undergrad university (UC Berkeley 70s) because had grown up mining, farming, roadbuilding, logging, mineral prospecting, and fly fishing (quit hunting age 17 during Vietnam) with my 8th grade educated Dad. Reading wildland was like breathing from my youth experience with Dad but learned how to talk to other scientists, greatly broadened vision, etc. in university.

used to find/map heavy metal (gold, silver, nickel, chrome, copper, etc) strikes along geologic contacts or boundaries or ore masses. This can be an initial step in mineral prospecting before drilling cores to further establish feasibility of mining.

They are like the metal detectors used by hobbyists in finding old coins or gold nuggets or whatever.

One can use them to map heavy mineralization.

For example, geological contacts may form along the edges of fault lines marked by serpentine strikes. The contacts across the landscape may not be apparent at the surface but there may be native copper, nickle, etc. where the serpentine on fault lines meets the meta-sedimentary rock. One can map the heavy mineralized areas with these tools.

I would imagine this is similar to what another poster mentioned about utility people apparently dowsing to find metal pipes before digging.

I do not know enough about this particular as to make a conclusion as to whether a fraud.

Yes that is right, the Mullah Omar that was the head of the Taliban when the Taliban sheltered Osama Bin Laden prior to and post 9-11.

from wiki:

Mullah Mohammed Omar (Pashto: ملا محمد عمر‎; born c. 1959), often simply called Mullah Omar, is the spiritual leader of the Taliban. He was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001, under the official title "Head of the Supreme Council". He held the title Commander of the Faithful of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which was recognized by only three nations: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He is thought to be living somewhere in Pakistan.

Mullah Omar has been wanted by the U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice program since October 2001, for sheltering Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda militants in the years prior to the September 11 attacks. Those who were close to him say that he requested evidence from the United States regarding bin Laden and his alleged hand in the 9/11 attacks but did not receive any. He is believed to be directing the Taliban insurgency against the U.S.-led NATO forces and the Government of Afghanistan.

Despite his political rank and his high status on the Rewards for Justice most wanted list, not much is publicly known about him. Few photos exist of him, none of them official, and a picture used in 2002 by many media outlets has since been established to be someone other than him. The authenticity of the existing images is debated. Apart from the fact that he is missing one eye, accounts of his physical appearance are contradictory: Omar is described as very tall (some say 2 m). Mullah Omar has been described as shy and non-talkative with foreigners.

During his tenure as Emir of Afghanistan, Omar seldom left the city of Kandahar and rarely met with outsiders, instead relying on Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil for the majority of diplomatic necessities. Many, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai, claim that Mullah Omar and his Taliban movement are used as puppets by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Pakistan. Additionally, many current and former U.S. senior military officials such as Robert Gates, Stanley McChrystal, David Petraeus and others claim that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are also involved in helping the Taliban.

when 15 or 16 of age. I attended a then quite liberal coeducational boarding school near San Francisco in the 2nd and 3rd year of its existence 68-70.

Stops included Cafe Trieste (opera and capacino), City Lights Bookstore (where Ferlinghetti read us poetry), the Condor Club (where Carol Doda talked to us and gave us a glimpse of her show http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Doda), Finnochio's (http://queermusicheritage.us/oct2002f.html), Anton Levay's Church of Satan store (Antron present to talk to us), Coit Tower, Enrico's Club, a Cathederal (that the name slips my memory), and dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We were at The Condor and Finnochio's early in the day when they were not open for business and got private visits and shows.

I only went to two other nudie bars in my life, both when I was 19 on my epic backpack, thumb, and Greyhound from California to Florida to to DC to New York to Seattle and points between then home: I went to a nudie bar in New Orleans during Mardi Gras and one in Nashville when I went to the pre-Opreyland Grand Old Opera. Never again and I am in my 60s now.

Mathew Fox is an honest, intelligent, and spiritually righteous man and humanist.

A (spiritual) fey on those of you that would dare mention the word conspiracy theory.

I was turned on to the writings of Mathew Fox by a practicing Catholic hispanic American girlfriend in the early 1990s.

I was raised in the 1950s and 1960s without religion in the home, a gift from my parents.

The Catholic church should not be messing in American nor any other politics. The Catholic Church should concentrate on putting its own house i n order and banishing the ubiquitous criminality of the upper ranks that diminishes the genuine follwers of the Catholic faith.

There is no such thing as a fair draft, never has been, never could be. It is not possible to make such a thing fair.
If you say "no exemptions no matter what" that is going to put a lot of people into harms way who are physically unable to fight.
Even then, there will be champagne units for the well-connected like Dubya.

There is no such thing as a "perfectly" fair draft. I am suggesting a lottery for all regardless of sex.

One important item would be to do away with military privatization and mercenaries too and enlistment as a path to citizenship.

Acceptance to the military academies should also be blind and on pure merit.

Legacies such as McCain should go away. Better then would it have been a smart and empathetic man such as Jim Morrison, son of Admiral "Gulf of Tokin" Morrison, I joke. There would be still COs and no one put in positions without the intelligence , physical ability, mentality, or will for the assignment, that would be inefficient. People would work in food services and the like rather than contractors. Champagne unit assignments would be criminal acts. The system would not be "perfect" because the ideal is not possible and humans are an inherently unfair and tribal species. But a system and checks and balances should be designed.

I was an active anti-war protester in SF/Berkeley

I can just imagine what sort of reception your pro-draft stance would have received there.

Then the suggestion would have gone over like a lead balloon and I would have kicked myself in the nuts if someone did not kick me first.

The Vietnam draft was blatantly unfair. I had a choice to register in Contra Costa county (east SF bay area) which was a good draft board for non-religious COs because I was going to high school there or 400 plus miles away in my rural and poverty-stricken home. Fortunately, the location of my high school both politicized and gave me more information. Friends that registered in my rural home had a much greater chance of being drafted or were given a choice of military or jail for minor infractions like under-aged alcohol or disturbance of peace. Where I would register was on an Indian Reservation and the kids were mostly Indians, timber workers, and the chronically poverty stricken. The discrimination between my home draft board vs the white middle and upper middle class registration in Martinez was blatant. I shouted this far and wide at the time.

I grew up in a culture where my Dad went to 8th grade, hunting was a way of life, and I never had a BB gun but was given a 22 rifle for my 10th birthday. Age 17, I had my last hunting license and last killed or shot a firearm (with one exception. I shot cones and twigs from the upper branches of trees for science research at one point 30 years ago). This was heretical. My Dad, an over aged WWII volunteer in January 1942 that spent 3 years in England, France, and Germany never really forgave me for this failure as his only son.

That was then and now is now. Now there is an economic draft. People are not 2 or 3 years and out. Many volunteer as there are no jobs and they get training and travel and can retire in 20 years with a pension, skill set, and favorable hiring and other priviledges. The military has become a good or only career choice. If the children of wealthy and professional class people - those financially secure -had their children at risk and no military privatization of functions. There would be a higher proportion of those drafted in support jobs and not in the line of fire. COs, like some in Vietnam, would have alternative service such as working in the National Forests or Parks and other public works.

Unfortunately, some have to serve in the military. In theory, the rich and secure would have much more personal risk to their families. We need to reduce the militarizism of the USA. I would expect far less veterans putting in 20 years and retirement and more three years and out. This assumes a smaller and less aggressive military as well. I may be wrong but we need something better than now. Kids get out of high school today and the military is their career choice because the military is the only way to get a secure job and education

and planned for a non-religious CO but was over 300 in Draft lottery.

Would a "fair" draft accomodate conscientious objectors?

See above.

A fair draft is the surest way to reduce wars and the size and cost of military.

A draft does not reduce wars, it provides a ready source of cannon fodder for any damn fool war the pols want to start.
The only way it reduces the cost is if you pay the draftees next to nothing. That would cause economic hardship on their families.
It pushes training costs up through the roof, and of course all of those veterans are entitled to benefits.

A "fair" draft can be a pressure to reduce wars and make more people look at our bullying and violent foreign policies. In theory, again this may be wrong, there would be far fewer victims of an economic draft and fewer veterans putting in 20 years for retirement and a greater percentage of 3 and out.

Less people should look to the military as a way to get ahead or make a career.

Then we certainly should not force people into the military.

I can see military or alternative service for the unfortunate luck of the draw or those that truly want the experience. One would naive to think we do not need a military. My rough proposal would do away with the often dishonest recruitment process we have now as well as the economic draft. Again, individuals would not be put in positions without the physical ability, intelligence, mentality, or will for there jobs and would have the option of alternative service.

Military and war is the most useless and inefficient use of humanity and the natural world.

On that we agree.

Yea! We agree. IMHO the USA needs to be a far less militarized society. I believe now that a more fair but still imperfect lottery system with alternative service option would be a pressure to reduce the size and cost of military and cause the secure and decision-making individuals to have more thought against violence as foreign policy. If the USA was actually under attack, I think there probably would be plenty of volunteers eager to protect their familes and lives. Like my Dad in WWII. I likely would have thought much different during Vietnam if the USA was under invasion.

in Krygystan and Uzbekistan. We no longer have those bases because they kicked us out with Russian verbal support.

Georgia was the aggressor and loser in the war they initiated. There was USA and Israeli military equipment and advisors in Georgia, the neocons didn't plan for a Russian military response.

Post 9-11 the Taliban offered up OBL with Pakistan as an intermediatary.

We know Iraq was a fraud and many of us and most of the world knew at the time.

Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador (Rumsfeld's axis of evil of the western hemisphere) were surrounded by new USA DoD bases under the rubrique of the War on Drugs prior to 9-11. We lost the bases in Manta, Equator and Paraquay and supported failed coups in Venezuela and Bolivia under GWB. Plan Colombia began under Clinton.

Post Obama there were a successful coups in Honduras and Paraquay and an expansion of military presense in Colombia and Costa Rica. One of Zelaya's "sins" in Honduras is that he wanted to make the airbase a public airport, the USA's largest base in Latin America, main staging area for Iran-Conta, and refueling stop for the plane for the Zelaya coup.

The major military base in Djibouti was also in place at the pinch between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and AFRICOM was in the works. There has been a steady expansion of small DoD bases / footprint in Africa ever since, most that are hard to find any public information about.

All these initiatives flow out of the Project for a New American Century plans that were published under Clinton.

In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, the US Forest Service offered the heavy lift helicopters and airtankers (for fires) used in the western USA for wildfires and were refused.

The Gulf Horizon was permitted with a Categorical Exclusion under NEPA (National Environmental Planning Act, good Nixon era environmental legislation. There are three levels of review under NEPA: Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), Environmental Assessment (EA), and Categorical Exclusion (CE), in declining intensity and time of scientific planning and assessment ad public opportunies to review. The Gulf Horizon CE spill plan was boiler plate with wildlife and fisheries species protections from Alaska NEPA documents. A Fed employee signed that CE and presented the responsibilty of a chain of command through the federal bureaucracy to political appointees at the Secretary and Deputy Secretary level. Why weren't they prosecuted or at least fired like the token fines and criminal convictions of BP and associated employees and companies?

"Peanut" was supposedly "my" (never thought to ask for) dog but 7 year older sister dominated the dog from when he was a new puppy as a gift for my birthday (an age inappropriate pet but this was early 50s extremely rural and a way of life now essentially gone).

We ran three very tame horses and a mule in our large fenced yard fenced essentially treated as large slow dogs and had other horses, cows, chickens, pigs, nearby. Peanut had a bad habit of chasing livestock until one of the yard horses or the mule kicked Peanut to a near death experience. As an aside, most dogs have the sense to be afraid of large pigs.

My parents had a party and barbeque and Peanut took my steak and bit me bloody and stitches in the face and I never saw the dog again.

The other dogs that were around then were my grandfather's hunting hounds. They were all lovers.